Laois taxi driver summonsed for colliding with cyclist sees his case dismissed
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AT Portlaoise District Court recently, a local taxi driver who acknowledged that he had collided with a cyclist had a summons of careless driving dismissed.
Jacob Oriahi (60), 36 College View, Mountmellick pleaded not guilty to the offence that took place on the flyover bridge at Concourse, Mountrath Road, Portlaoise on 22 December 2024.
In his sworn evidence on the Quaran, the injured party, Mr Baha Baha said that he finished work at 12.30am that morning in the An Post Mail Sorting Office at Father Brown Avenue. He went for a coffee and then prepared himself for his cycle home to Mountrath.
He said he wore a leather jacket with a high viz vest, a light on top of his cycling helmet and turned the lights on the front and rear of his bicycle and left the premises at about 1am.
Mr Baha said about 15 minutes later while cycling over the flyover, he “suddenly woke up on the road. I was knocked out. My leg was shattered and my knee was broke. I was hit from the back. I couldn’t stand up. My back was hurt and my leg was completely shattered. I was in shock. An ambulance was called and I was taken to Tullamore hospital.” Mr Baha said he knew the driver who had struck his bicycle as a taxi driver who occasionally used to take him home from work.
Mr Oriahi’s solicitor Philip Meagher said that his client would say that the injured party had no light on top of his helmet and that no light was found near the accident spot.
Mr Baha said the light might have been knocked off his helmet due to the impact from the collision, adding: “I swear to Allah I had a light on my head.”
Mr Meagher said that while there might have been lights on the bicycle “you did not have them activated” and the area where the collision occurred was pitch dark at the time.
Judge Susan Fay asked Mr Baha whether he had been wearing his glasses at the time?
He replied: “I had them on. I had taken them off earlier because it had been raining heavy. But I put them back on because it was only drizzling rain.” Garda Shortt said that he had been alerted to a road traffic collision and on arrival saw an injured man on the road. He said he spoke with the taxi driver, Mr Oriahi, who informed him that as he was driving along he “suddenly heard a bang.” He then spoke with Mr Baha, who told him that “he felt a thump from behind.”
He said he took a photograph of the bicycle that had its lights on and handed the photographs into court. It showed the back wheel had been damaged.
Garda Shortt said he conducted a roadside breath test on Mr Oriahi, which showed no issues.
He said he had been made aware that there were two passengers in the taxi at the time, but he had not seen them.
Mr Meagher, holding up the photograph of the damaged bicycle, pointed out, contrary to what Garda Shortt had said, there were no lights switched on on the bicycle at the time.
“They were lit when it was carried off the road by another guard,” said Garda Shortt.
He told Mr Meagher that he had no recollection of seeing a light that Mr Baha said had been on his helmet. He said that a backpack that Mr Baha had been wearing had covered most of the high viz vest he had been wearing.
Making an application to dismiss the summons against his client, Mr Meagher said that at no stage during the case did the state seek to add or to amend the summons. He said the date of the summons is 26 June 2025, while the collision took place on 12 December 2024.
The summons was out of time, one day late, said Mr Meagher, to be properly and legally served.
He also said that at no stage during the hearing did the prosecution state that the incident took place in a public place; no evidence was produced to show who the driver was at the time; no evidence shown that there was speed involved; and no evidence to show what manner the car had been driven at the time to deem it careless.
While acknowledging that Mr Baha had been injured in the collision and “suffered a terrible ordeal,” Judge Fay agreed that the state had not provided the evidence that would have been required, as set out by Mr Meagher.
She said that while there had been other witnesses available to the state to call, they were not present to give evidence and, as such, went on to dismiss the summons against Mr Oriahi.
